22-03-2020, 11:37 AM
(21-03-2020, 11:04 AM)zicorice Wrote: Later in life Cloughie admitted to breaking up the team too quickly. Having walked I believe on water, human nature dictated that they believed they could do anything and it would work. Telling Lloydy he was too old but then bringing in an even older Willie Young to replace him. The likes of Fashanu, Wallace and Ponte showed that Taylor was losing his touch. Money wasted and financial difficulties followed (out of Europe, the "executive " stand also contributed hugely) causing us to offload the bigger wage earners.
The recovery came when Cloughie was forced to bring through the home grown talent more than ever - and his genius came to the fore again - Sutton, Fairclough, Hodge, Walsh, Wigley, Davenport to name a few soon after followed by the likes of Des, Flemming, Nigel, Brett William's, David Campbell, Terry Wilson between the them spine of Cloughies sides and squad players from the 3rd place finish in 83 and the 3rd place finish in 1988.
Of course many players were also brought in and played crucial parts but Cloughies magic returned though his best sides (1988-90 in my opinion) lacked an edge that we used to have with Burns Larry and Bowyer. We were a bit too nice. We had Psycho and the football was fantastic to watch, but the likes of Wimbledon used to bully us so we always fell a bit short in the league, but were superb in the cups winning 2 and 2 FA Cup semis in a short space of time.
In 1989 we were the best team in the country for much of the season singing "We're gonna win the lot" in late March. A midweek loss during fixture congestion to Arsenal gave them the momentum to go on and win the league and we all know what happened in FA cup semi, when we were in full swing and went to Hillsborough at full strength and one of our greatest seasons paled into insignificance and is almost now forgotten.
To be as good as we were in 1988-89 season shows to me Cloughies genius was enduring. Imagine us finishing 3rd in the Prem, Winning the league cup and reaching Semis of FA Cup playing the most attacking exciting football in the country. A team that had homegrown Sutton, Walker, Clough, Wilson supplemented by bargain buys or freebies like Laws, Pearce, Crosby, Gaynor, Chapman, Webb, Parker and a returned Hodge.
I often think that this team doesnt get the plaudits and respect it deserves and neither does Cloughie for building it on a shoestring. Webb and Hodge cost relatively big fees for the time, Chapman cost 300 000 at the time Dean Saunders cost well north of a million.
A great team.
I forgot to mention the lack of of European Competition (thanks to Scouse scum) meant we also played in Simod cup where a full strength team in every round won at Wembley in a thrilling game vs Everton.